Buffy's Tale
by Willow Redfern
Summary: Part of the Sunnydale Tales. Drusilla succeeds in turning Buffy insane; Spike succeeds in making Buffy a vampire; there's a new family coming out in Sunnydale
1. Visions

"No seriously. You gave me a bruise! I'm going to be black and blue in the morning, and then going to have to explain to my workmates how I got beat up by a girl," Xander continued to complain. "You still don't know your strength!"  
  
"I'm the slayer," Buffy said, still on the watch for late shift vampires. Assuring herself that there were none dangerously close by, she turned to her friend. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? Here, let me have a look at that."  
  
Xander jumped back quickly, holding his injured arm in his other hand.  
  
"No way I'm letting you near that arm again!" he said, only half joking. Buffy looked at him with one eyebrow raised, before returning to her stake out.  
  
"Angel..." she whispered suddenly under her breath. Xander was still muttering to himself when Buffy started walking away from him and towards her ex-lover.  
  
"Angel," she said softly, touching his cheek tenderly. He flinched away in one jerky movement, starting the effort of getting himself to his feet. Buffy hastened to help, but he spun around and growled at her.  
  
"Leave me alone!" he said testily. "I can do it on my own."  
  
"But I don't mind...what's wrong?" she asked, backing away a step reflexively, her eyes deeply worried.  
  
Angel noticed the movement with derision.  
  
"What? You think that I've gone evil again?" he asked, before cutting off her insistence to the contrary with, "I guess it was always easier for you to face the fact that I was absolutely sick of the sight of you because I was evil."  
  
Buffy stood in front of him, mouth gaping. From behind her, Xander was catching up with an inquisitive, "Buffy?"  
  
Angel's eyes flashed in the other boy's direction briefly. Buffy's mind was spinning back rapidly to the day after their union, before she had known he was bad. She wasn't going to go through that again. Jutting her jaw mulishly, she spoke to him again.  
  
"Why are you speaking like that to me if you're not evil?" she asked.  
  
"Come on, Buffy! It's hardly like I have the element of surprise anymore. If I was evil, don't you think that the first thing I'd do was rush over there and kill that goof of a boy, Xander?" Angel asked. In the next instant, he was no longer standing in front of her.  
  
Buffy spun around quickly towards Xander, thinking to save him, but there was no vampire hovering over her friend, only Xander's confused expression as she went into his arms.  
  
"Who were you talking to?" he asked gently.  
  
Buffy pushed back from him slightly. "Didn't you...didn't you see...?"  
  
Distantly, Buffy thought that she heard tinkling laughter at her back. Drusilla watched on, eyes bright with the intoxication of the slayer's pain.  
  
Buffy shook her head and then smiled, "nothing, nothing. Let's just get you and your bruised self back home."  
  
And with that, Xander and his best friend walked through the night, leaving Drusilla with her laughter and clasped hands.  
  
That tinkling laughter followed Buffy into her dreams that night. Many images, mostly distorted or disjointed or both, flooding into her mind. Fears, memories, recollections, people, sounds, music, colors, all melding together and making one, large, strange picture.  
  
"Angel, why are you speaking to Dru? She's evil. Or don't you remember that?"  
  
"Push off, little girl. I loved her long before I even knew you!"  
  
"What do you know of love? Guy after guy, sex and then he leaves."  
  
"What do you know about love, Spike? You're a soulless thing."  
  
"Better a soulless thing than a soulful disappointment."  
  
"That's just not true! I don't just leave all of my friends like that. It's just your imagination. I'm telling you."  
  
"And I'm telling you, you don't listen. People say things to you, but you just don't listen."  
  
"I'm sick of listening to this!"  
  
"Listen to it, Buffy. You're the reason why Angel ever went evil again. Know it. Face it. It's all because of you. It's all your fault!"  
  
Buffy sat up sharply in her bed, sweat like blood covering over her body. A strange song had been playing all throughout the dream. Voices, she had recognised all of them, every single one, things that had been said, hinted at, things she'd known but never wanted to admit to. No. It couldn't be. Not really.  
  
She grasped her scalp through her hair. She didn't know what to do. What could she do? She wasn't even in control anymore. Everything that had been said had been true. All of it. Every last word.  
  
A sob caught up in the back of her throat. Jumping up out of bed blindly, she grabbed the first jacket that touched her fingers and ran from her bedroom. She didn't know where she wanted to go, she just knew that she had to go. Get out. Now.  
  
Now.  
  
It had all been true. All of it.  
  
Walking down the street, head down, she didn't know where she was heading, didn't know where she had gone. All of it was a blur. She could have walked past or even through Xander and wouldn't have known. Even Willow she wouldn't have recognised just then.  
  
It was worse than the time that Angel had gone evil. Worse even than when he had left her. Because this, this wasn't about Angel. This wasn't about anyone outside of herself. This was about her, everything inside of her, everything she knew and felt to be true. The one thing she couldn't escape. Herself.  
  
She kept walking. 


	2. Slayeresque Dreaming

Buffy was back to the dorm, soaked from the sudden shower that sprang out of nowhere. But the cold and wetness was the last thing on her mind, she couldn't help but be obsessed with seeing-or thinking she saw Angel again.  
  
The pain was sharp and deep every time she thought of that name. She remembered the time they spent together, the time they spent fighting, the time they spent apart while Angel was in some Hell Dimension, the time she offered her own blood for his remedy, and the time he disappeared through the smoke of the demolished Sunnydale High.  
  
Tears stung her eyes as she tried with all of her might to keep them back and prevent her chin from trembling. A soft sob escaped her mouth and then she quickly covered her face with her hands and sank onto her bed, soaking the sheets underneath her.  
  
"One thing that I never liked was how you always cried."  
  
She looked up, her head snapping to her closet door. Angel was standing there, completely dry and staring menacingly at her. He held a knife in his hand and traced invisible lines across the palm of his other hand.  
  
"What--"  
  
"Is wrong with me? What am I doing here?" Angel asked, moving away from the closet and crossing the room to stand in front of The Slayer. "I just came back to see you suffer. I can smell it, taste it radiating from your skin, I can feel the vibrations of your heart aching and breaking. I feed on the pain of others, I feast on the pain I inflict on you."  
  
Buffy jumped to her feet and jabbed with her right hand, this couldn't be Angel, he couldn't have lost his soul again, he wasn't there, it was some kind of shape shifter, it wasn't him! She expected her fist to swipe right through him or him to vanish instantly, instead she struck flesh.  
  
Angel quickly grabbed her wrist and twisted her around, yanking her arm high up behind her back, causing a jolting pain to shoot through her arm. "You're loosing your edge. I bet you don't even have the muscles to shove a sword through me anymore."  
  
But then Angel was gone, Buffy wasn't even in her dorm room. She was standing in the shower, completely dressed with the water turned as hot as it could go.  
  
Unable to stop the sobs any longer, Buffy turned off the shower spray and sank to the wet and cold floor. Everything was wet and cold tonight, everything.  
  
"What is happening?" Buffy asked through deep sobs, her body shuddering roughly.  
  
It took an entire hour for Buffy to regain her feet and change into something dry, the entire time she tried to regain her composure but was unable to unstill she left the dorm building and started off for Giles' place.  
  
The storm had cleared up, the moonlight shone down between random holes in the thick clouds that covered Sunnydale.  
  
Drusilla was walking behind Buffy, not keeping to the shadows but walking in the middle of the sidewalk, as if she were making sure Buffy would reach her destination safely, as if she were Buffy's guardian. "Look, she is nearly broken. One swift tap and she'll shatter into a million pieces! A million pieces! And then will come the cake and the dancing and the grandest celebration the world has ever seen!"  
  
Buffy was oblivious to all of this, she was wrapped deeply in her troubled thoughts. All she could tell herself was that Giles would have the answer, he always had the answer, always, always knew what to do, he'd make it all better, everything would be fine, he'd tell her what to kill and then she'd kill it or Willow would cast some spell and it'd all be all right, all right.  
  
Finally, she reached Giles' front door and knocked loudly. The door opened slowly as Giles peeked out in shock to see Buffy standing there, her hair all a mess and her eyes puffy and red.  
  
"Buffy!" He opened the door completely and embraced her, squeezed her hard and then lead her into the house. "What is the matter? What happened?"  
  
"It was--"  
  
"Me." Angel finished for her, a new habit that he had acquired recently, he was sitting on a chair in the living room, fiddling with his knife.  
  
With no warning, Buffy rushed across the house, picking up a large staff on her way, screaming and crying, panicking and then stabbing the javelin through Angel's head. But he was gone before the wooden shaft was able to puncture anything.  
  
Giles watched in amazement as Buffy sank to her knees in racking tears, shuddering uncontrollably and asking what was wrong with her. Rushing toward the Slayer, ready to calm her but she stood up, rage disfiguring her usually beautiful face.  
  
"Get the hell away from me, Watcher!" She screamed. Giles stepped toward her and Buffy yelled at him again. "I'm warning you! If he isn't real then your not real and maybe I'm not real and it's all in my head! All in my head! Angel isn't here!" The girl looked like she was about to break into tears and Giles wished he knew what she was talking about.  
  
He stepped even closer and she screamed and suddenly lashed out. Buffy punched him hard in the jaw and the Watcher went down.  
  
Buffy ran out of the house with no idea of where she was going or what was wrong with her. 


	3. A Very Good Day

Down the street Buffy stormed down, an axe in hand that she had grabbed from Giles' private collection on his way out. He certainly hadn't been in any way to stop her. But that wasn't the point. There was a perfectly sane reason for what was happening to her. It was some demon. And demons could be killed. It was always some demon, and this time was no different. She'd kill it and everything would be good and back to normal.  
  
She twisted the weapon around in a circle once, before retaining a firm grip on the handle.  
  
"Buffy?"  
  
Her jaw tightened as she heard the call from behind her. But she didn't halt in her stride. This was just something she had to do. Her stride grew more purposeful as the call sounded from behind her once again.  
  
"Buffy! Damnit, stop will you?"  
  
A firm hand stopped her suddenly in her tracks and spun her around. Decisive in what she wanted to do, Buffy spun around with the axe in hand, aimed at the throat of the one who would dare interfere with her right now. But she should have known from the strength employed by the one behind her that this was not one without amble reflexes either.  
  
"Buffy, what's wrong?" Buffy's eyes chilled over in the face of Riley. She felt nothing staring at him. He was almost surreal, just standing there. She went to turn away and stalk in the general direction of that demon once again.  
  
"Damnit, what are you doing?" Again she was turned around by firm hands, but she didn't take it so easily this time. Wrenching away from his grip, she pushed him easily to the ground, from where he lay to look up at her, confusion all over his face. "Buffy..?"  
  
"No," she said, her voice dead. "Leave me. Now."  
  
Riley struggled back up to his feet, holding his hands up complacently when she got into one of her stances.  
  
"Buffy, I don't understand. Why are you cutting me out like this? Did I do something?" he asked, trying to understand. None of this was making sense.  
  
"I'm the slayer. I always knew it would come down to this. I am alone."  
  
"You don't have to be alone. Is that what this is all about?" Riley asked, taking a careful step forward. "Buffy, I'll stand by you, through everything. You have to know that."  
  
"I don't want -" Buffy cut herself off. "I don't want you to stand by me. I'm the slayer. In the end, the slayer is always alone."  
  
She kicked him back, almost dispassionately, before walking away before even seeing how he landed on his ass in utter bafflement; his pride bruised more than his butt.  
  
She just kept on walking.  
  
*  
  
"Hello, Slayer."  
  
This time the tone of the voice that called to her was completely different. Not simpering or wanting to help. Not understanding or empathetic to her slayer needs. None of that. No, this voice was different; and it was one she would answer to.  
  
"What do you want, Spike?"  
  
"Remember when I said that as soon as you got your death wish, I would be there? That I would have me a very good day?" Spike drawled. Buffy turned and moved closer towards him at the same time as he stepped towards her.  
  
"So Spike? What are you going to do about it then?" she dared him.  
  
A predatory smile curved well shaped lips.  
  
"Do, Slayer? I'm about to have me a very good day," he growled in a low, guttural tone, just before pouncing on her.  
  
She didn't even make token resistance. That would have been playing to what Spike wanted. And even this low, she wasn't about to do that. She merely lifted her neck to give him even fuller access.  
  
To her surprise, he suddenly laughed.  
  
"You know Slayer, you've got more spunk than I ever gave you credit for. Doesn't mean that I'm not going to drain you..." With that, he gritted his teeth against the pain he knew was to come and drunk from her.  
  
He growled in the agonizing pain he felt, before being surprised by more external pain. He reared up to face Buffy, then looked down at the shoulder she had punctured with her stake. Blood already welled there.  
  
"Looks like both of us are about to have ourselves a very good day," she uttered tonelessly.  
  
Spike narrowed his eyes, then watched as her lips attached themselves to the wound at his shoulder. Something suddenly clicked off, and without conscious thought, Spike found himself again sinking towards the skin at the slayer's neck.  
  
This time his target was reached without such intense and illogical pain. He grinned to himself. This was the way it was supposed to be. William the Bloody. He still was a bloody animal! And he was about to prove it.  
  
"My god, B! Gotta say, didn't picture us coming up against each other like this," a sudden and familiar voice broke into the moment.  
  
Drowsily, Buffy pulled away from her poison of choice to stare dully at the brunette slayer.  
  
"I mean, geez, I knew you had a hankering for vampires, but this is bad, even for you!" Faith seemed almost at a loss for words in her incredulity.  
  
"Run, Faith. Run very far," Buffy said, in a deeper than natural voice.  
  
Faith tilted her head to the side marginally.  
  
"You know B, somehow, I just don't see that that's going to be happening around now. Can you really blame me for that?"  
  
Without giving her time to respond, Faith leapt forward to attack. With faster reflexes, Spike jumped between the two slayers, preventing immediate attack.  
  
"Sorry luv," he said, "But you just happened to interrupt something pretty personally there. You'll have to schedule your surprise attack on the slayer some other time."  
  
While Faith was forming a reply to that, she happened to look over Spike's shoulder at Buffy, and what she saw halted her response for a moment or two.  
  
"Not just a slayer, Spike," he heard her say in a voice she had never used before. Slowly, he also turned to a sight he had somehow never expected to see.  
  
Dark ridges and hollows decorated the whole of Buffy's formerly human features. When she smiled, the appearance seemed even more frightful.  
  
Spike took glory in the sight. This was his girl. What a wholly novel way to take care of a slayer. He turned around again to see how Faith was taking the show.  
  
Her eyes were widened and she was obviously making an effort to compose herself in the face of such monstrosity. Although she had killed more than once and took relish in the dusting of local undead residence on the side, in all her work, she had never seen something like this. Scarily enough, it gave her a view straight into her own mortality; one she definitely did not relish embracing.  
  
"Why Faith, you seem shocked," Buffy crooned. "Wasn't there something you wanted to show me? Well, come on then, I don't have all night." Again, a sly smile exposed all of her newly pointed teeth.  
  
Against all of her self control, Faith took a step back. With toughly summoned bravado, she said, "Oh, your Scooby pals are going to love to see this!"  
  
Buffy put a mocking hand to her lips as she faced Spike with wide eyes.  
  
"I'd forgotten all about them! What shall they think of me?" Spike smirked. Buffy turned again to Faith. "I look forward to informing them of the news."  
  
Faith seemed again at quite a loss. This night wasn't turning out anything like she'd expected. However, the girl knew when she was facing a losing fight, and at the moment, she was facing a very losing fight. She knew when to retreat.  
  
"I'll be seeing you around, B. It will be a pleasure to dust your ass. A definite pleasure!" With that, Faith turned and bounded away up one of the near drain pipes and towards the roofs above.  
  
Spike and Buffy watched her go despondently. Pulling away from Spike, Buffy's mind was already on other things. Like how she would now be able to prove one way or another what Angel was up to, now that she was on his level.  
  
She stepped back from Spike, and strode down the alleyway that he had found her in. Using one of her new vampiric senses, she set about smelling him out; something that she had always pointed out as an utter turnoff in the past, but which she found had quite the uses in this situation.  
  
Suddenly, a hand clamped down on her arm from behind.  
  
"What the hell do you think you are doing, slayer?" Spike asked, surprised that she would walk away from him so fast now that she had gotten what she so obviously had wanted from him. He felt mildly used.  
  
Not knowing or not caring about his feelings either way, Buffy spun to face him, shifting into game face as she did.  
  
"Get off me," she growled, before turning, shifting back and continuing on her way.  
  
Behind her, Spike gritted his teeth and set his jaw. There was something definitely amiss here, and damned if he wasn't going to get to the bottom of it. The slayer had knowingly dragged him into her mess, and now she was going to have a hell of a time getting him back out of it again if he could had anything to say about it! 


	4. Painting the Town Red

Alone in her room, Willow gasped and her eyes opened wide. She jumped off of her bed where she had previously been sitting cross-legged and looked apprehensively at that place as though it would offer her answers that she would not otherwise receive.  
  
That had been intense. That had been more than intense! What had that been?  
  
Still breathing heavily, Willow shook her head. That was enough magic for her to last a long time. A very long time. There was no way known that she was going to be dabbling in those magics again, that was for sure. Nosirree! Willow had definitely learnt her lesson.  
  
She just wished that Buffy would come back and reassure her that everything was okay. Laying down to bed, she waited for her slayer friend to return to the dorm room that they both shared.  
  
*  
  
Cackling all by herself in a crypt that nobody in Sunnydale even knew she was staying in, Drusilla danced to music that only she could hear and crowed to herself and her imaginary 'daddy'.  
  
"Ooh, you've been a cruel daddy, coming to the slayer like that. Did you know that she went to dear William to change her? She is one of us now. Surely one of us. What a party, and everyone's invited!"  
  
She clapped her hands together in her ecstasy, knowing that her time spent on her own and lonely was soon to come to an end. She was about to create a new family all of her own!  
  
*  
  
Buffy stalked the dark streets of Sunnydale, fully aware that Spike trailed along behind her. He was really getting quite annoying, but for now it suited her to go on ignoring him. The time would come when she would take care of him, but that time was not now.  
  
Now she was on the trail of something bigger. Angel.  
  
His scent led her onwards into a part of Sunnydale that she didn't know so well, but that didn't matter. She was above those things that went bump in the night. Even more than when she had just been 'the slayer'. Now she was actually one of those things that went bump in the night. And she loved it!  
  
Buffy slowed down. He was close. She could feel it. And right ahead of her was a mansion that she had never seen before. Fitting, she thought to herself. Only the best for Angel. Some things never changed.  
  
Taking a deep breath, she wanted to be absolutely ready for her confrontation with her ex-honey, she started up the hill that would lead her to confrontation of the very best sort.  
  
*  
  
Drusilla was positively humming with the energy that was coming towards her. Not long now, not very long at all!  
  
*  
  
Buffy kicked open the door as she had on so many occasions with Spike. Eyes blazing in her own readiness, Drusilla spun around to face the ex-slayer.  
  
"Buffy," she crooned, "So nice for you to drop by."  
  
"Cut it out, Drusilla. Where is Angel hiding?"  
  
Drusilla laughed the laugh of only a truly crazy person, before fixing her eyes somewhat dazedly on Buffy once more.  
  
"Oh dearest heart, you really think that your Angel is here with me? How sweet," she said in her rich, deep voice.  
  
Buffy's eyes opened finally to what was truly around her. Drusilla was right. Angel was not here after all. It had all been a trick. She had been tricked!  
  
"Now now, no need to throw a tantrum or anything like that," Drusilla stepped forward to admonish. "That's not the way happy families work out, you see."  
  
"Dru, we are hardly a happy family," Buffy enlightened her, but Drusilla quickly lifted one finger, complete with painted nail, up to her ruby lips.  
  
"Shhhhh," she uttered. "Not supposed to say naughty things like that. It's not the way it's done."  
  
Buffy rolled her eyes, but something in Drusilla's eyes suddenly struck Buffy as true.  
  
"You... you're my sire," she said in wonder. "You were the one who made Spike... and he made me..."  
  
"Yess..." Drusilla ran her hand down the side of Buffy's face soothingly.  
  
"And that means..." Buffy continued.  
  
"And that means... we're going to paint this town red," Drusilla crowed in ecstasy. 


	5. Back to the Master

"Now as then, now as then, now as then!"  
  
Buffy opened one eye, the eyebrow above it raised with disdain in time to view Drusilla's little clap and dance around in a circle in sudden elation.  
  
"No, you're kidding. That's actually supposed to work?" the former slayer asked in irritation at having had her time wasted. "You know, I've got better things to do in my first moments of being the 'vampire slain vampire'. I'm outta here."  
  
As she stood to exit from the mausoleum that the crazier vampire had brought her to, she noticed that there was no longer the distinct 'above ground' look, complete with ragged, red curtains over the windows surrounding them.  
  
~1902 - London Sewers~  
  
Now there were just dirt and mould clusters making up the walls all about her. The floor too was obviously no longer made of concrete. Buffy spun around to glare at Drusilla who had not moved but to stare at her with intensely, glowing eyes of the insane.  
  
"Alright, what is this?" Buffy asked, placing her hands on her hips and making her stance. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.  
  
"It's your coming out party, and all the old friends are invited," Drusilla murmured, extending a thin arm outwards so that her attention was drawn behind her.  
  
On second thought, this place did look strangely familiar, Buffy realized silently, deliberately ignoring Drusilla's continuing presence with her. She had died in a place like this. But no, not died, because that had been above ground, in the vampire Spike's arms. Then how could..?  
  
It came back to her with the suddenness of a stolen breath, if indeed she had needed to breath in her newest form.  
  
"Why Drusilla, the transcendent, dark princess returns. And with what here? A present for us?"  
  
Buffy only just held back from her initial reaction, which was to lash out at this new, completely bald and dried up looking vampire.  
  
"Now now, child of mine," Drusilla held her back saying, "Old enemies are enemies no more. New vampires are best to remember the old rules."  
  
With something that sounded like a mild 'tut tut', Drusilla started off at a floating stride towards the Master vampire and the two other vampires who stood to either side of him; one female blonde and the other a man with odd, sticking up brown hair.  
  
"My Master," Drusilla crooned, kneeling in front of him. "I bring to you a present from the future. She is a threat to us no more."  
  
The blonde and brunette vampires glanced up at Buffy with new interest. Buffy stared back at them obstinately, refusing to be the first to back down. The brown haired vampire looked strangely familiar to her, as though he had meant something to her at some time before, but surely that was insane. And certainly, there was no recognition in his gaze as he stared into her. The blonde only looked her up and down almost insultingly.  
  
"What present?" she asked scathingly. "Another mouth to feed, to cause us to give ourselves away in this time when we should be more careful than ever? Well hunted, Dru."  
  
Drusilla whimpered a little at the harsh put down, while the Master vampire put a gentle hand over the waves of brown hair that cascaded down over the bend vampire's shoulders.  
  
"Now Darla, surely there is no reason to be so hurtful. We are all allies here," he told, before his hands tightened around a clump of hair that he lifted Drusilla's head up with. "Now, tell us more about this 'present from the future'," he commanded of her.  
  
"A slayer," Drusilla murmured softly. "The girl. . . was a slayer. . ."  
  
"Bloody hell, Dru. You've brought a slayer in to us? What do you think she's going to do now? Tear us all apart, now that she knows exactly where we are hiding. You've given us cause to hide even longer now!" A new, starkly blonde male came into the group. He came down right next to Drusilla and spoke low to her. "I thought you wanted to get out above ground, luv, but all you seem to have done is made us stay underground longer."  
  
Drusilla shook her head vehemently, looking at both the blonde vampire male who stroked her cheek almost caressingly, and at the Master vampire who still held her hair in a tight fist.  
  
"No. Not a slayer anymore. One of us," she hissed, her eyes alight. "She will hunt with us now, not for us."  
  
Getting over the shock of seeing the blonde male vampire, Buffy slowly recognized the expressions going around the room of vampires that she had been brought in to. Suddenly they all gazed at her as though she were something amazing; scarcely to be believed. But she was more interested in this blonde one who seemed even more familiar than even the brunette male. Almost as though he too had had something to do with her being here, like this.  
  
"Can it be?" the vampire the Master had called 'Darla' spoke on a breath.  
  
"Well, she wouldn't say it otherwise," the brunette male told her in a bad Irish accent. He stepped forward for a better look at the former slayer. "So, slayer. One of us that you have always hunted now. How does it feel?"  
  
Actually, tired of being paraded on show, Buffy thought inwardly, and wondered if those thoughts were visible on her face as the vampire stared into her. She guessed that she had her answer when he stepped back a little with a crowing laugh.  
  
"Oh, she's got spirit, she has. Hm, I wonder if all slayers would turn out this hungry to be one of us." He laughed again, but Buffy had the idea that with the cruelty of the tone, it wasn't 'with' her that he was laughing, so much as 'at' her. "So Dru, where did you get this one?"  
  
"Sunnydale," Drusilla answered with a secretive smile.  
  
"Sunnydale?" Darla questioned, her face becoming tinged with annoyance again. "Impossible, Dru. Southern California? We have never lowered ourselves by going that far into the new world!"  
  
"Shut up for a change, Darla," the blonde male bade her without looking around to face her. He was too busy watching closely to Drusilla's changing expressions. "I think our baby's got something for us here. Don't listen to her, luv. You just listen to me. What did the stars help you to do this time?"  
  
"Pst pst pst," Drusilla replied, shaking her head at him. "It's a secret. Can't tell just anybody your secrets, you know."  
  
"Come on Dru!" the brunette male growled, impatience tingeing his tone. "We don't have time for your fun and games right now."  
  
Drusilla narrowed her eyes dangerously at the other vampire, but then with a swiftness that was almost scary in its own right, her face became smiling and gentle again.  
  
"Daddy gets impatient. Grandmother worries that power is changing hands. While William, my William, you don't even know that you were the one who caused all of this. I was only the one to bring her back to us. Are you jealous, Daddy, jealous that my William was able to do what you never could?"  
  
"What the hell are you on about now, Dru?" Now it was obvious that the brunette male was fit to be tied. "Spike, what is she talking about; this is your business? Why in all the hells would I be jealous? I've never seen this slayer in my life!"  
  
"Angelus, it is time now to be calm," the Master cautioned. "I believe our little princess could be getting onto something here."  
  
"She's never been quite right," Darla seethed quietly at Angelus. "Ever since you insisted on all those foolish games with her mind when she still lived. I told you it would never do to turn her into one of us. Now see what you have brought upon us with your 'fun'!"  
  
"Quiet Darla. This is not the time for it," Angelus told her in no uncertain tones, having not taken his eyes off Drusilla yet.  
  
Side by side, the two of them were quite fearful in appearance. By contrast, William appeared quite calm and interested in the outcome of this little drama. Depending on how long they had been cooped up in this dank underground, Buffy could hardly blame the blonde vampire. Nothing all that interesting could occur under here, so any uproar should be cause for immediate interest.  
  
"We need to go back to Sunnydale," Drusilla whimpered up to the Master, wanton appeal in her eyes. "The Hellmouth calls to me. It says that so many wonderful things are just waiting to happen there. And think of how many wondrous things we could make happen there!"  
  
"Ah, Sunnydale. The Hellmouth, no less. A beautiful idea," the Master crooned, "Though how do you propose that we get there?" he added a little harshly. "Fly?"  
  
"Oh no," Drusilla murmured, "Certainly not, when there are so many helpful boats just waiting for us."  
  
"You have got to be kidding!" Darla dismissed in disgust.  
  
"Drusilla, luv, you know I admire your vision," William began, "But this is just too insane. Even for you."  
  
Drusilla twitched, but held her head upright as she strode away from the group of vampires.  
  
"You will not help me. Naughty, naughty family. I shall just have to take my slayer and make her my daughter and family somewhere else then. Come," she summoned of Buffy, who was still in a state of awe by the sudden culmination of the gathering.  
  
"About time," Darla huffed, as though glad that no more of her oh-so- precious time was to be wasted in this manner. "Now we can get onto more important discussions on where we ought head next."  
  
"Wait!" Buffy said, stopping Drusilla a little way on. "Why didn't you make them do what you wanted them to? You managed to time travel with a stupid line of three words repeated by three. You are obviously much more powerful than any of them!"  
  
"Sad it is, but they will come to learn in time," Drusilla murmured, sparing an angry glance at them. "It will not be pretty, but we shall get to watch as they all come to learn in time. You do want to watch it, don't you? It will be so very pretty to see. Let me show you it. We will get our family soon enough."  
  
* 


	6. Life' Decisions

"I am glad to see them go. She was never worthy of our Master's attention," Darla said, striding over to the Master's side, where Drusilla had previously stood.  
  
Both Angelus and Spike gazed after the crazed vampire, and the former slayer. Angelus, with narrowed eyes of residual rage; Spike, with longing and wonder. Breaking the stillness that had settled around them, Angelus scoffed and turned away from the rest, pacing in another narrow corridor, still in near sight of the others.  
  
"Let him go," the Master said, staying Darla with a long clawed hand around her slender wrist. Her big eyes glancing down at him, the Master continued, "He was always too impetuous. I did try to warn you of it over one hundred years ago."  
  
"I still stand in my position with him," Darla said murmured.  
  
"Even when he would speak to you that way?" the Master questioned.  
  
"It was I who brought him up to speak that way," Darla answered, still gazing after him, planning the hurt that she would inflict on him later when they were alone. "And even when he would stray, faced with that damned gypsy curse, it was none but I who brought him back. We belong together."  
  
And what a glorious night that had been, Darla mused, allowing her mind to go back to that splendid night between them. What a row they had had before that. And after, who would have thought that her stepping back would have him coming back to her. When she had allowed that he would stay with her, without giving in any of his 'presents' that she had come to expect of him over years. When he had come to her one night, come to her in the raw need that they had always shared between them. When he had seen that his endeavors for 'good' and 'just' were a hoax, set up only by a God who would not want him.  
  
And she at first had pushed him away, for how could she give herself so completely to such a shadow of the man whom she'd once loved? It had been he who had put on the force that night, for the first time since those cursed gypsy's had reinstated his sorry soul, he had once again been the aggressor. For her. For the memory of what they could be together. Because suddenly, that memory alone had no longer been enough for him. For either of them. And they had joined, in possibly the most fulfilling joining between them since her siring of him a century before.  
  
Perhaps it had been the anticipation, perhaps not, but that night had been so different to any other. And then, once they had woken up disheveled, and with the mattress on the floor after the creaking bed's legs had simply given out beneath them, Angel had been her Angelus once more. They never did speak of those times in between, but in those times after, he had been vicious. Sometimes, more vicious than even she could believe. Oh, but they had been the most glorious times together.  
  
"Yes, so you keep saying," the Master murmured. He then turned his attention to Spike. "And what of you, young one? Do you not go after your beloved one?"  
  
"We always find each other, me and Dru," Spike answered glibly. "You gotta give a girl like Dru her space. She'll love you more for it."  
  
It was the way that the youngest vampire of the group had been ever since the Master had allowed them to come back with him after they had been forced into hiding due to one of this young one's antics. Had he not managed to bag a slayer of his own before that time, the Master oftentimes believed that they would have left him alone out there to burn. As it had been, his men had found them and brought them in. Even Angelus had been vaguely apologetic for their past meeting, and the Master could even find it in himself to respect the younger vampire's lust for life and the snuffing out of it by his hands and teeth.  
  
Now together, they bided their time for the prophesised times to come, and the Master could not help but think over what his young princess had spoken of. If indeed she spoke true, there were some very interesting times to be had ahead. Mayhaps they might even think towards acting in that direction after all.  
  
*  
  
~1906 - London~  
  
A firebomb erupted through the sewers, giving the vampires who lingered there barely enough time to become aware of the situation, let alone react to it.  
  
"Bloody hell!" was screamed out, almost drowned out entirely by the explosion surrounding them.  
  
"We have to get out of here," Darla cried. Her eyes were wide as they searched hard for a way out of this. "It's a death trap for us all."  
  
"Like we all can't see that!" Angelus growled. "When I get my hands on the one who's responsible for this. . ."  
  
"Well, I can hardly pass up an offer like that now, can I?" a feminine voice said from behind the fire force. "Bring it on."  
  
"A slayer," the Master muttered. "Kill her. She will not get out of these sewers alive!"  
  
"I hate to prove wrong someone as old and, well, I would say wise but in this situation, I don't think that quite fits." The girl found herself face to face with Spike suddenly and grinned up at him before head butting him squarely. "Do you?"  
  
"Angelus, here's a piece for you!" Spike called out over the fire. "Remember, I did promise you the next slayer we came up across."  
  
"Aye," Angelus replied, grasping the slayer by her upper arms forcefully, and hurling both of them up through the manhole and above ground to better fighting surroundings for him. "That he did, slayer. This will be a mighty fine pleasure. I have heard say that the blood of the slayer is a most powerful aphrodisiac."  
  
"Don't talk to her," Darla told him, glaring at the slayer viciously. "Get rid of her quickly. She has already cost us too much!"  
  
Indeed, that was true. The only ones to have made it out of the fire trap had been Spike as well as Darla aiding the Master. Now they stood about in the nighttime London rain as passersby screamed and ran all about them.  
  
Spike, at first having been content to merely watch his sire's maker play with his newest toy, suddenly lifted his head as though sensing something nearby, before turning off to seek it out. Darla noticed absently, before dismissing him as unimportant at this point. The Master drifted towards the fight between vampire and slayer in something akin to a daze.  
  
"Yes," he hissed low in his throat. "The slayer will come down to me, and she will die, giving her life so that I may bring about hell on earth!"  
  
His tone was triumphant when he reached close enough to be heard by Angelus and the slayer, even through the din that was being made all around them.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Angelus asked, taking his attention away for a second from the slayer in front of him, after buying himself a second as she fell to the ground.  
  
"It shall not happen like that," the slayer snarled, glaring up at the Master, before she quickly regained her footing once again.  
  
She glanced for a second towards Angelus before deciding obviously that this was one fight she was not about to win. Darla came to stand closer by her childe's side, and together, the two of them looked quite intimidating, even without the Master vampire's clawed hands reaching out towards her.  
  
"Not tonight, but soon!" the slayer promised, before turning swiftly to retreat back to wherever it was that she had come from.  
  
Not swift enough, Angelus' hands reached out from behind her and near yanked her head from her shoulders as he violently severed the bone between her head and her spine, with a definite sense of satisfaction.  
  
"Damn it, and I was getting such a taste in my mouth for a long, healthy draft of slayer blood this night," Angelus growled down to Darla, as the slayer's dead body was dropped careless down onto the cobblestones, for whoever cleaned the streets in the morning to find.  
  
"No mind," she murmured into his mouth. She was draping herself up against his much larger body "You heard the girl. Not tonight, but soon. It was a promise, Angelus."  
  
"Aye, a promise I intend collecting on, even if it's from every other one of them down the line," Angelus muttered darkly, before taking his sire's mouth in a savage kiss.  
  
They pulled apart, becoming aware once more of the Master's presence with them. That, and Spike's continued absence.  
  
"Now, where do you suppose he got to?" Darla asked, though without any real care in her tone. Angelus' next words followed that up neatly.  
  
"Who really cares? Let us leave this place. I grow tired of it, and we can hardly stay here now. We must find another place to rest before sunlight."  
  
*  
  
"I can sense you, my puddle full of devilish delights," Spike murmured into the darkness. "I can feel you in my bones, stuck in my marrow. The air reeks of you, luv. There's no need to stay in hiding. You know I'll find you eventually."  
  
"My William. How true you are to me. I knew you'd not forget me," an answering murmur from nearby trees replied.  
  
Stepping out, Spike saw indeed that it was his sweetly, dark princess come to greet him, and swept her into a fast embrace that was violent in the taking.  
  
"Ah luv, you were gone for so long. I had begun to doubt that you would come back to us," Spike muttered against her soft, pale neck. The ridges of his true face tickled her fair skin, and she shuddered slightly.  
  
"Silly boy, you knew I'd come back for you," Drusilla told him, lifting up her gloved hand to stroke his face. Unlike him, she still appeared human, even if such an appearance was quite deceiving. "We'll always come back for you. You just had to learn your lesson first."  
  
Drusilla nodded as though that was that, and it was all very simple. Spike only found himself very confused.  
  
"Dru? What lesson was there to learn?" he asked, stepping closer to her as she wandered away.  
  
"Why, the slayer, of course," Drusilla replied, shaking her head at him. "Why Spike, sometimes you are really very slow."  
  
"You mean, you were the one who set the slayer upon us tonight?" Spike asked, beginning to get very riled up at the thought.  
  
"Leah Bradley," Drusilla said, going off into her own world with her usual ease. "She was very giving, she was. Quite happy to do everything I asked of her. She's a real slayer, you see. Not like the one that I brought you back then. You all had to see the difference."  
  
Spike was beginning to see the warped sense in his beloved's line of logic, though the line was not necessarily a happy one to him.  
  
"Let me see if I'm getting this right, luv," he began slowly. "You set the slayer on us to teach us all a lesson. You could have had us all killed!"  
  
"Nonsense!" Drusilla admonished. "I would never have let that happen."  
  
"And you were there, were you?" Only narrowly did he manage to refrain from grabbing her roughly and shaking her. Not that she wouldn't have enjoyed it. He just didn't believe that it would be overly productive in this situation. "Geez, Dru! So where is your little pet slayer then? I suppose she's lingering about here somewhere?"  
  
Drusilla appeared surprised for a moment, as though Spike had just mentioned something that she had misplaced and forgotten about. Fortunately, Buffy was able to move on her own, whether she had been misplaced or not, and chose that minute to come out of the thicket.  
  
"Ah, there she is. My pet slayer. But no!" Drusilla paused, her eyes widening and her lips creating an 'O' of shock and revelation. "She is your pet, my love. You were the one who brought her here like this."  
  
"Bloody hell Dru, what are you going on about now?" Spike asked, getting more than a little annoyed. "If I'd done something like that, don't you think I would have remembered it? It's not as if I easily forgot that Chinese brat from the Rebellion, is it?"  
  
"No," Dru whispered, holding a forefinger to her darkened lips. "You haven't done it yet, for of course you'd remember that! It's about what you did do, or what you will do, or what you won't need to do now, because it's already done. Isn't that wonderful?"  
  
Spike shook his head and closed his eyes. Sometimes, it was just better to give up on her when she was in one of these moods. 20 odd years with her like this had taught him at least that much.  
  
"Alright then Dru. Whatever you say. We'd better be getting back to the rest of them right soon too. Otherwise, well, you know how eager they can be to wander off without us!" Spike glanced down at Buffy, almost as though he would have rathered not to, with all that she represented. "And I suppose that you'll be wanting to come along too? Very well, but watch yourself. You're no better to me just because you were once a slayer. In case your new 'watcher'," he glanced scathingly at Drusilla, "Didn't tell you yet, there's a new slayer in town."  
  
"I expected nothing less," Buffy replied, just as scathing. "One dies and another one is called. Don't think that just because I became a vampire I lost what wits I had. Obviously that's something that some of us seem to suffer of!"  
  
That last comment was made pointedly at Spike, who growled in abject annoyance, before grasping Drusilla's arm and dragging her along with him.  
  
"You are going to have some explaining to do for this one, luv," he told her harshly, before they came again into more heavily populated areas.  
  
*  
  
They had separated not long after this time. Through the years, the had come across each other in mass destructions and massacres, though never after that time had they made nest all together. In fact, the Master, so intrigued by Drusilla's ramblings, had traveled his way to Southern California, along with Drusilla' pet slayer Buffy, once the other vampire had tired of her fun. Spike and Drusilla had traveled the world widely, coming across demons and wars, finding that the key to the slayer line was held in the potentials that were chosen before. Angelus and Darla had fought and loved as they had come to discover the new world, and where they fit in to it.  
  
Years past. Decades. And yet the longer this group remained apart, the more concreted it became that this group would once again come together on a place that reeked evil and what evil could do. A place called Sunnydale, the name that the very mouth of hell used to hide itself from the humans it lingered beneath.  
  
* 


	7. And Again to the Present

~1986 - Sunnydale~  
  
"I can feel it. The time grows nearer. Hell will walk upon this earth, and we will live forever in a bliss of our own making!" the Master crowed, walking in the open down the nighttime streets of Sunnydale, laughing at the children he made cry and run in fear, loving the freedom of power that he enjoyed here, in this time; a time like no other before it.  
  
The former slayer of this town, Buffy, walked along side of him. She was his right hand, knowing more of this town and its strengths and weaknesses than any other vampire in the small group they had gathered under the people of Sunnydale's very noses. She knew the balance of good and evil here, how easily it could be overturned by insignificant events. And thus, she stood as the very best right hand that the Master could require.  
  
However, neither one of them saw the slayer behind them before her blade whistled towards the Master' neck, which he blocked deftly by lifting one hand to catch it in a firm, unmoving grip.  
  
"Ah, now what do we have here?" he asked, turning around to face his attacker. "I think that we have a nuisance come to ruin our plans."  
  
Buffy narrowed her eyes at this slayer, hating the vulnerability she saw in the girl's eyes, an expression she remembered in her own days from her slaying days thankfully long gone now. As the girl lifted her chin defiantly, the Master chuckled.  
  
"Oh, I suppose that I can give you at least a fighting chance," he said graciously, letting go of the sword, much to both Buffy and the current slayer's surprise.  
  
However, the surprise did not last long, and the slayer immediately moved again to strike the Master down.  
  
"Now, now, have you not been warned of a Master vampire's power?" he asked her chidingly. "Do you really think that I would have lasted this long if it had only been a matter of hacking a sword inadequately in my general direction?"  
  
He grasped her hand holding the sword in a death grip, and twisted it around so that she was at his mercy, leaning down slightly to give some relief to her shoulder. Any movement further, and he would break that arm of hers. He broke it.  
  
The slayer cried out, as the Master let go and glanced down at her in glee. On her knees, the slayer nursed her arm gently, while muttering something softly under her breath. After a moment, the Master stopped laughing, and caught wind of her mutterings. He looked at Buffy with an almost comical expression.  
  
"And what does she think she is trying to do now?" he asked with an eyebrow raised derogatively.  
  
"I say don't give her a chance to show you," Buffy said, glaring down harshly at her predecessor.  
  
"So blood thirsty in youth," the Master murmured to the slayer as though she should be able to empathise with him. She still hadn't made a movement from the ground. "I remember that thirst for blood when I was a much younger vampire. Of course, those days are long gone from me now."  
  
The slayer's eyes flashed as she suddenly glanced back up towards them both.  
  
"As will be the days when you roam these streets like a free animal!" she ground out. "Dom-in-ae, est-im-ae, es-cap-ae!"  
  
"What? What does she think she is doing?" the Master asked, this time having no obvious sword to deflect. Even Buffy looked quite at a loss over what this slayer was doing.  
  
"I banish you!" the slayer began, gripping the sword tight in her uninjured arm. "From this, your place. From your escape. I banish you."  
  
She came up to her feet and held the sword steadily towards the Master vampire.  
  
"I banish you!" she screamed, beginning to lash into the Master so that all he could do was step back, waiting frantically for an opening. "From this, your place, from your escape!"  
  
Dimly, Buffy was aware of the ground beginning to shake beneath her. What on earth was this slayer trying to do? She'd never been taught anything like this! What the hell was going on here?  
  
"That's an interesting parlor trick, young one," the Master told her, with his former glibness. "Unfortunately, it will not save your life."  
  
As suddenly as she had begun to lash into him, the Master's arm shot out and gripped the slayer by the throat. Her sword dropped down to the ground with a resounding clang. Even the ground seemed to steady from its shaking.  
  
"See? You have no power over me. When are you slayers going to learn this?" the Master asked. "No matter. Because you see, I find that I have another lesson it's time to teach you."  
  
As the Master's mouth opened wide, the slayer's eyes widened, before she seemed to remember something with a start. However, at the advanced stage of preparing to drink of the slayer, the Master did not see what Buffy caught.  
  
"With my blood," the slayer was muttering haltingly as she tried to get out enough breath for it. "With my blood, let it be sealed!"  
  
The Master drunk. As suddenly, the ground began to quake again. Buffy braced her legs to keep from falling to the ground as she watched the Master bring them all down with his action with something akin to horror.  
  
"No!" she screamed, running at the slayer.  
  
It was too late. The slayer lay dead on the ground as the Master wiped her blood from the corners of his lips. Buffy's chest heaved, although without need, as she looked around herself, with a growing sense of déjà vu. The were below ground. Yet, how had they gotten there?  
  
Glancing away from the dead slayer, the Master strode across to the opening tunnel that would lead them above ground again, but an invisible barrier appeared to keep him sealed in. Again and again he tried, but still, to no avail.  
  
"No!" he screamed, beginning to bash harder and harder against the barrier with all of his strength. It took him a while after Buffy had realized it to know that in her death, the slayer had managed to trap him down here.  
  
*  
  
~1996 - Sunnydale~  
  
"Another year ended. And let me add a hearty 'yay' to that!" Jesse cheered, lifting up one cola can towards an unseen toast.  
  
"But not just any year," one of his best friends, Xander added from beside him on the school stool they hung all over as they whiled away their last lunchtime of the year. "This is our last year before High School. Next year, we're in the big leagues boys."  
  
"Um, hello? Girl here!" the redhead last one of the trio added, waving her hand about in order to get her two male friends' attentions. "Perhaps that last 'boys' could be changed into something like, I don't know, 'guys'?"  
  
"What's the diff, Will?" Xander asked her. "That's still a male orientated group word."  
  
"But still, it's slightly more accepted for feminine inclusion," Willow murmured, sounding slightly unsure of herself this time.  
  
"Well yeah, I mean, why not? Go the feminine inclusion, I say!" Jesse crowed, standing up and lifting his voice as a certain crush of his moved past them. "Including girls into male friendship groups is something that I am very much for. What would you say, Cordelia?"  
  
"Eww," Cordelia, walking with her group of fashion model worthy friends replied. "Juvenile much?"  
  
"You know, Cor, we are coming into new times," Xander piped up, attempting to help is oldest and bestest friend out here. "New schools, and maybe new personality adjustments. They might even be able to do a big enough job so that you would actually act like a normal, feeling person."  
  
"Or that you might be socially acceptable in High School," Cordelia responded with a snide smile.  
  
"Oh, now that hurts. You see this man?" Jesse asked, pointing to the place on his jacket that was above his heart. "I'm feeling that for you. That was nasty. Now see, the difference between you and me is that she doesn't come out with that kind of crap about me. That's what's so telling about her feelings where I'm concerned."  
  
Cordelia turned to her friends without even glancing Jesse's way a second time. She said only, "You'd think he'd get a hobby. Or maybe obsess himself with someone who was more attainable to him." Deliberately for Jesse's hearing as well, she added, "I heard that some of the rats in the science labs are single. Well, they wouldn't be in there if they were opposed to experimenting, surely!"  
  
"Ooh, another swing and a miss for our man Jesse!" Xander said, patting his friend on the back. "Yet again!"  
  
"She really wants me," Jesse said, nodding to her back as she laughed along with her friends now that she had well and truly passed them.  
  
"Really, Jesse, I think you should just move on," Willow murmured from behind them both. She had wisely opted to stay quiet when Cordelia and her friends walked past. Bad things always seemed to happen in her little world of Willow when she tried to be witty in situations such as that. Over the years, she had just found it much better simply avoiding them altogether. "Find a nice girl, someone that you like who likes you back and treats you good as well."  
  
"Ah Willow, no vixen will ever be as kind as you," Jesse murmured, still gazing off in the direction that Cordelia had walked off in, while Willow tried to figure out if that had been a comment towards her own sexuality as an actually female or not. Probably not, she decided, knowing these two guys just saw her as commonly A-sexual. She sighed.  
  
"That didn't sound like a happy sigh!" Xander picked up on. "Come on, where's my happy Willow for this happy last day of school?"  
  
"I'm happy," Willow insisted, placing a fake smile on her lips. "See? Smiling!'  
  
"Oh, be still my thumping heart, can't you just see the sincerity there, Jesse?" Xander asked mockingly.  
  
"Yeah, it's there alright," Jesse replied. He finally managed to tear his eyes from the path that Cordelia had formerly walked upon. "You guys, we need to think of something great, something utterly spectacular to do before we leave this dump."  
  
"You mean, other than the many, many toilet rolls over the trees tradition, don't you?" Xander asked, trying for seriousness.  
  
"No, I've got something much better in mind," Jesse confided, and his eyes suddenly sparkled as they rested on Willow. "We're going to make our redheaded little friend here skip her last two periods of year 9 class time!"  
  
Willow's eyes widened as she realized what this could do to her so far unblemished school record, regardless of her hanging around with these two goofballs; consequently the only two goofballs who would permit her hanging around with them. She couldn't do this. They couldn't do this to her on her last day at school!  
  
Looking up at both of their faces, she saw that that was exactly what they were about to do. And there was seriously not one thing that she could do about it.  
  
*  
  
At the Sunnydale airport, a young brunette woman stepped out of the cargo hold of the train and looked around surreptitiously. Only once she was certain her movements would not be seen by others did she make her move further out of there. She was finally here. Sunnydale. Home of the Hellmouth.  
  
Behind her, another, older man was stepping out with the same amount of caution shown by his counterpart. The girl had turned around and was looking at him, it seemed, almost awaiting further direction.  
  
"To the High School," the man announced without a great deal of emotion. "That is where all the signs thus far have pointed us to."  
  
With a nod, the brunette led the way without question. She was one who was very easy in her body. It showed in the way that it flowed as she walked, as though she had ultimate control of every muscle under the skin. Looking at her closely, one might have been able to see past the girlish exterior and into the obvious physical training that this girl had undergone her entire life thus far. She was very obviously in charge of herself and those around her.  
  
The only question remained; for how long?  
  
*  
  
"Sunnydale," Spike uttered in disgust. "Who would have thought that there was so much damned sun to be had?"  
  
"Quit your complaining," Angelus growled. "It was your 'beloved' who brought us to this place."  
  
"Come now, Angelus. Why in such a bad mood? We come to a Hellmouth. Surely the new experience, even for us, is cause for some excitement?" Darla asked from beside him.  
  
"Excitement is only a reason for carelessness," Angelus answered her. "And I have no wish to become careless; here of all places!"  
  
"Our call for coming grows closer. We are almost upon him, I can feel him talking in my head," Drusilla whimpered. "It grows painful. We must be with him soon!"  
  
"Hush pet, we have already come this far," Spike reassured her softly. "I'm sure our 'Master' can wait a few hours longer."  
  
"The ground grows impatient. It knows what we must do," Drusilla cried, but this time, the others only tuned her out. 


End file.
